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things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you." Again, "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you'." And those ordinances which he published in the course of his apostolic journey, from whom did they come? Hear the Apostles' own account of them: "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us." Not to man merely, but to God; and therefore the ordinances put forth were not traditions of men, but traditions of God.

Our Saviour had made the same distinction in His own ministry. He had found fault with the Pharisees for their traditions; but why? because they were traditions of men, and such as obscured and resisted the tradition of God. "Why do ye," He says, "transgress the commandment of God by your tradition'?" and again, "In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Again; "laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men*;” and again, " Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition;" and again, "making the word of God of none effect, through your tradition which ye have delivered." And then He adds, " Every plant which My Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up."

3. Now let us turn back to the text, and the passage connected with it. Here, as elsewhere, the Apostle lays down the great principle, that every thing, to be done acceptably, must be done in Christ. "Other foundation

1 1 Cor. xi. 1, 2. 23, 3 Matt. xv. 3. 9.

Matt. xv. 13.

2 Acts xv. 28. Vide also 1 Thess. iv. 8. 4 Mark vii. 8, 9. 13.

can no man lay'." Every plant, but the Cross, shall be rooted up; no fruit is good but what its branches bear. No person, no work of any kind will endure the judgment, but what comes of Christ, and is quickened by His Spirit. Every thing out of Him is dead. And as no virtue is real virtue, nor service true service, nor work good work, if He is not the life of it; so in like manner, no rite or ordinance is good, unless as grafted into Him and sanctified by Him. St. Paul does not speak against ordinances in themselves, but ordinances which are done beside or against Christ's grace and will. Such were those of the Pharisees which our Lord Himself denounced; such were those of the Galatians which St. Paul protested against; such were the ordinances of those Jews or Gnostics, or whoever they were, whom, in the passage connected with the text, he has in view. These teachers of error refused to take Christ as their Head,-"not holding the Head," he says; they would not believe that Christ was all-gracious, all-powerful; so the Apostle reminded them, "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Again, "Ye are complete in Him which is the Head of all principality and power." Instead of remembering this, these false teachers made Angels their hope and their worship; "in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels."

And, in consequence, nothing they did, or said, or taught, or practised, was right. Their services, their rites, their ordinances were all reprobate. How does this show that there are no ordinances in Christ? why must ordinances in Christ be unacceptable, because they

1 1 Cor. iii. 11.

"Let

are unacceptable out of Christ? St. Paul says, no man judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days." Why? Because these were not of the body. You see, then, there is a body; yes, but it is not the body of any angelic lord or teacher; it is not the body of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, though they are members of it; it is not the body of Moses, for Moses "was faithful in all his house," but "as a servant." It is Christ, who is Lord over His own house; it is Christ's, whose, and whose only, is the body. In Him only are we sanctified; in Him only are our works, our services, our ordinances sanctified; but in Him we are sanctified; in Him our works, our rites, our forms, our observances, are sanctified. We are wrong, not when we have works, rites, and observances, but when they are not in Him. All these make up the body of Christ:-first of all in the body are our persons; next our order and polity; then our rites and ceremonies; lastly, our professions and works. All are parts, each in its own way, of Christ's Body, in which is life; or in the words of the Apostle, from Him, as the Head, "all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God."

4. Nay, something more is yet to be said on this point. Not only do forms and ordinances remain under the Gospel equally as before; but, as is plain from the very chapter on which I am commenting, what was in use before is not so much superseded by the Gospel ordinances, as changed into them. What took place under the Law is a pattern, what was commanded is a

rule, under the Gospel. The substance remains, the use, the meaning, the circumstances, the benefit is changed; grace is added, life is infused; "the body is of Christ;" but it is in great measure that same body which was in being before He came. The Gospel has not put aside, it has incorporated into itself, the revelations which went before it. It avails itself of the Old Testament, as a great gift to Christian as well as to Jew. It does not dispense with it, but it dispenses it. Persons sometimes urge that there is no code of duty in the New Testament, no ceremonial, no rules for Church polity. Certainly not; they are unnecessary; they are already given in the Old. Why should the Old Testament be retained in the Christian Church, but to be used? There are we to look for our forms, our rites, our polity; only illustrated, tempered, spiritualized, by the Gospel. The precepts remain; the observance of them is changed.

This, I say, is what many persons are slow to understand. They think the Old Testament must be supposed to be our rule directly and literally, or not at all; and since we cannot put ourselves under it absolutely and without explanation, they conclude that in no sense it is binding on us; but surely there is such a thing as the application of Scripture; this is no very difficult or strange idea. Surely we cannot make any practical use even of St. Paul's Epistles, without application. They are written to Ephesians or Colossians; we apply them to the case of Englishmen. They speak of customs, and circumstances, and fortunes, which do not belong to us; we cannot take them literally; we must adapt them to

our own case; we must apply them to us. We are not in persecution, or in prison; we do not live in the south, nor under the Romans; nor have we been converted from heathenism; nor have we miraculous gifts; nor live we in a country of slaves; yet still we do not find it impossible to guide ourselves by inspired directions, addressed to those who were thus circumstanced. And in somewhat a like manner, the directions of the Old Testament, whether as to conduct, or ritual, or Church polity, may be our guides, though we are obliged to apply them. Scripture itself does this for us in some instances, and in some others we ourselves are accustomed to do so for ourselves; and we may do so in a number of others also in which we are slow to do it. For instance, the Law says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself'." Does the Gospel abrogate this command? of course not. What does it do with it? it explains and enlarges it. It answers the question, "Who is my neighbour?" The substance of the command is the same under Law and under Gospel; but the Gospel opens and elevates it. And so again the Ten Commandments belong to the Law, yet we read them still in the Communion Service, as binding upon ourselves; yet not in the mere letter; the Gospel has turned the letter into spirit. It has unfolded and diversified those sacred precepts which were given from the beginning.

To this, however, it may be answered, that what is true of the Moral Law is not true of the Ritual. That the Moral Law remains, that the rites and ceremonies 2 Luke x. 29.

Lev. xix. 18.

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